Again, it is (for me) the way I normally browse and use a forum. I typically visit the forum, look at the list of subforums and can tell by whether those subforums titles are bold or not if there are new posts within them since I last visited. I’ll then go into, say, the Hardware forum and look at the headings of threads - those that are bold are the ones that have new posts since I last visited. I’ll read the new posts in the threads I choose to browse, then hit the “Mark Forum Read” button and all messages in that sub forum are marked read.

Very easy to mark threads read (whether I have actually read every message or not - there are a variety of reasons to do that) and to tell each time I visit which forums and threads (the bold ones) have new unread messages. I’ve read here and there seems to be no simple way to do that.

I’m sure if one lives with this forum software and uses it for hours a day, it seems very intuitive. Though I will say none of the other forums I read every day have 780 post threads on figuring out how to do things on the forum.

Perhaps it just wasn’t designed for someone like me - I simply want to easily see what topics/threads have new posts I haven’t read, read what I choose, post, mark everything read that I want read, etc. The End.

(While a different topic, I was just on my iPhone trying to browse here, and I read a message in a thread in the Games category,and could not figure out how to simply go back to the thread listing in Games once I finished reading. All I could figure out was hitting the Home button which took me to the listing of Sub Forums/Threads.)

Click those words to be taken to the new topic, or unread topic, lists for that category respectively.

JeffL:

I’ll then go into, say, the Hardware forum and look at the headings of threads - those that are bold are the ones that have new posts since I last visited

Just visit the topic list you are interested in and look for the red “last visit” line. Everything below that was present the last time you visited. Everything above that line was created since your last visit, so by definition you have not seen it.

This is something we explicitly added based on feedback here (not by specific request, but by interpretaton of feedback like yours) and I think it was a solid idea; happy to have added it.

If you want the system to explicitly track and “dismiss” every single topic as unread, well, Discourse begs to differ with vBulletin on default forcing people to suffer under the cognitive load of “hey you haven’t ‘read’ every topic since you last visited, so you must click a button now because fuck you that’s why”.

That said, you can kinda mimic this by setting “tracking” on all categories. Visit the category, then press the notification button at upper right to set it. Once you do that, you will be forced to dismiss all new replies because you’ve told Discourse yes, I am super interested in every single topic in this category.

If that’s a deal breaker for you, c’est la vie, de gustibus non est disputandum and all that. For the record, precious few people complain that we aren’t nagging them enough, as they already have enough nagging in their lives, thankyouverymuch.

This is something we explicitly added based on feedback here (not by specific request, but by interpretaton of feedback like yours) and I think it was a solid idea; happy to have added it.

If you want the system to explicitly track and “dismiss” every single topic as unread, well, Discourse begs to differ with vBulletin on default forcing people to suffer under the cognitive load of “hey you haven’t ‘read’ every topic since you last visited, so you must click a button now because fuck you that’s why”.

That said, you can kinda mimic this by setting “tracking” on all categories. Visit the category, then press the notification button at upper right to set it. Once you do that, you will be forced to dismiss all new replies because you’ve told Discourse yes, I am super interested in every single topic in this category.

If that’s a deal breaker for you, c’est la vie, de gustibus non est disputandum and all that. For the record, precious few people complain that we aren’t nagging them enough, as they already have enough nagging in their lives, thankyouverymuch.

The line showing new posts/etc. is a good one, thanks.

I guess I am baffled by your comments on most forums method of showing you in boldface posts and threads with unread posts as “nagging.” and “fuck you.” and a cognitive load. It was the way Quarter to Three and just about every other forum works. I’ve never heard anyone say “DAMMMIT IT LOOKS LIKE THERE ARE NEW POSTS IN THE NEW MUSIC FORUM!!! ARGHHH! LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!!!” ;) It’s simply easy to see and understand information. Same for threads. Very simple to see which posts are unread. On some forums I hit “Mark forum read” for some categories and other ones I leave bolded as a reminder there are some things in there I haven’t read yet but want to get to. The reason I like it is, one, it’s the way all 12 web forums I read or check out each day work (everything from gaming to technical to politics to AV etc.) so its the common language. so to speak, and simple and comfortable. There’s nothing to “figure out” going to a new board like that - it works the way all the other ones do. Two - the information is just very straightforward to see and absorb.

But as to your comment on things of taste and preference, in veritate dico vobis. I have been on QT3 since the very early days, paid a guy who grabbed the domain and held it for ransom from Tom and Mark, and I’ll keep coming here because of the people here, even though I really dislike this forum software. If I was brand new and just trying out the forum, I’d probably skip it. But i assume there are people who love the new system, so I’ll just go back into my grumpy old fart cave. ;)

Geez man do you know how many full-device owning exploits there probably are on that old OS?

JeffL:

It was the way Quarter to Three and just about every other forum works. I’ve never heard anyone say “DAMMMIT IT LOOKS LIKE THERE ARE NEW POSTS IN THE NEW MUSIC FORUM!!! ARGHHH! LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!!!” ;)

The decline of forums in general speaks to this.

In a flood of information that increases in volume every day, nobody appreciates the “you must read all this” cognitive load that vBulletin (thanks vBama) adds to their world.

I believe we shouldn’t force people to mindlessly push a button to make things go away, like a hamster requesting more food pellets. Instead, we infer what they want to see based on their actions. If someone reads a topic for ten solid minutes, they are interested in that topic. If someone replies to a topic, they are interested in that topic. If someone creates a topic, they are interested in that topic.

(One thing we want to do, but haven’t gotten around to yet, is notice that people never visit a certain category – or always visit a certain category – and start prioritizing / de-emphasizing that category for them.)

If you really want to be constantly nagged, I told you how. Go to each category, click or tap the button at upper right and set each one to “tracking”. Then you’ll be forced to dismiss a bunch of stuff on each and every visit, like you like ;)

So… as long as we’re talking about being constantly nagged… can we get a “save for later” option for post drafts?

Several times, I’ve been on my phone, started writing a reply, and realized that it was going to be long and involved enough that I’d rather do it on a real keyboard. At that point, no matter what other threads I navigate to, the “Post draft in progress. Select to resume” message sits at the bottom of the screen reminding of my failure like the beating of the telltale heart.

All it would need is a button next to Reply and Cancel to make it go away without discarding the draft, and then it could just revive itself and remind me to finish the draft the next time I visit that thread.

This already works – simply leave the topic and come back whenever on any device (as the draft is saved on the server). The draft is saved for a period of months, and you can have one draft for every topic.

This already works – simply leave the topic and come back whenever on any device (as the draft is saved on the server). The draft is saved for a period of months, and you can have one draft for every topic.

Test it and see what I mean.

This is only true if by “leave the topic” you mean kill the whole tab and then open a new one to get back to Qt3. If you leave the topic but stay within Discourse (by hitting the home button, clicking through to one of the Suggested Topics at the bottom, going to the Unread view or one of the categories, etc.), the nag banner will follow you through the whole rest of that session. I know through testing that I can stash the draft and clear the notification by starting and cancelling a reply to a different topic, but that sort of unintuitive workaround shouldn’t be necessary.

In a flood of information that increases in volume every day, nobody appreciates the “you must read all this” cognitive load that vBulletin (thanks vBama) adds to their world.

I believe we shouldn’t force people to mindlessly push a button to make things go away, like a hamster requesting more food pellets. Instead, we infer what they want to see based on their actions. If someone reads a topic for ten solid minutes, they are interested in that topic. If someone replies to a topic, they are interested in that topic. If someone creates a topic, they are interested in that topic.

(One thing we want to do, but haven’t gotten around to yet, is notice that people never visit a certain category – or always visit a certain category – and start prioritizing / de-emphasizing that category for them.)

So, yeah, I guess that is our fundamental difference. You say people shouldn’t be “forced to push a button to make something go away like a hamster requesting food pellets.” I say give me the option to mark threads and forums read or unread when I want to.

You say a bunch of stuff on how you decide for me what I’m interested in as if that is a good thing. I say I don’t want you to decide for me what I’m interested in - I just want you to keep it simple and let me decide which forums and threads I want to mark read and unread. I can handle it, really, I have for decades! ;)

So very fundamental difference and we’re not gonna agree. Which is OK.

You say a bunch of stuff on how you decide for me what I’m interested in as if that is a good thing. I say I don’t want you to decide for me what I’m interested in - I just want you to keep it simple and let me decide which forums and threads I want to mark read and unread. I can handle it, really, I have for decades! ;)

As stated multiple times above, you can – just set every category to “tracking” state. Then you’ll have to dismiss all new posts every time you visit (or they’ll keep piling up).

If you are unable or unwilling to do that, well, I dunno what to tell ya.

Normal isn’t the default state, though. The default state is one where Discourse changes you to watching if you spend time in a topic. Once you change a muted topic back to normal, you’ll not enter the same default state where Discourse escalates topics on your behalf. This drives me nuts.

Why not just set it back to “normal”? Mute suppresses all notifications and erases the topic from your topic list views.

I don’t want to ever see the thread pop up in Latest. It’s visual noise I want to obliterate. However, I don’t like that it disables notifications since I can’t mute without wondering if someone is trying to ask me a question or continue a conversation.

I’ve suggested a hush button to hide a topic from the Latest list for two weeks. Many threads get bumped for half a day and then go back to sleep for a few years. But the availability of a mute button causes me to obsessively hide threads.